Line spacing device for adding and computing machines



1965 o. HABERKORN ETAL 3,2 55

LINE SPACING DEVICE FOR ADDING AND COMPUTING MACHINES Filed Feb. 15, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 /N VENTORS I N 1965 o. HABERKORN ETAL 7,855 1 LINE SPACING DEVICE FOR ADDING AND COMPUTING MACHINES 'F'iled Feb. 15, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VE N TOPS United States Patent 3,217,855 LINE SPACING DEVICE FOR ADDING AND CUMPUTING MACHINES Gtto I-Iaberkorn, Walter Rompei, and Otto Roth, Gerstetten, Kreis, Heidenheim, Germany, assignors to Walther- Buromasehinen G.m.b.I-I., Gerstetten, Wurttemherg, Germany Filed Feb. 15, 1962, Ser. No. 173,499 Claims priority, application Germany, Mar. 2, 1961, W 29,584 2 Claims. (Cl. 197-114) This invention relates to printing devices and more particularly to paper transporting or shifting devices of the type used in printers employed in adding or computing machines and the like.

In present day adding or computing machine systems it is often very desirable to be able to visually observe characters printed by the printing facility an instant after these characters are printed onto the paper documents. Quite often this is not possible until two or three lines immediately beneath the line to be observed have been printed, so that, While the first line moves into a position where is can be observed, at least two or three lines beneath that line have already been printed by the computing device.

The instant invention provides an arrangement which improves the readability of the characters being printed upon the paper document by shifting the paper document in a first or forward direction to a position whereby the characters last printed are immediately observable, and then moving the paper document in a reverse or second direction in readiness for the next line of characters to be printed. Typically, once the printing device is placed in operation by depressing the motor start key, the operator then begins by inserting the first number to be placed in the computing machine which actuates a printing operation. Once this number is printed upon the paper document, the computing machine advances the paper document by a first predetermined number of shift units, followed by a second predetermined number of shift units. The total number of shift units moves the number just printed upon the paper document in clear view of the operator. The computing machine then operates in reverse so as to shift the paper document in the reverse direction by said second predetermined number of shift units preparatory to the printing of the next number to be printed upon the paper document. The next number to be printed is entered upon the paper document and is spaced below the first number printed on the document by said first predetermined number of shift units. Summarizing, the first number is printed upon the paper document, the document is advanced to a position where the first number is easily observable, and then the document is reversed in readiness for the next printing operation.

In high-speed electric machines having large platens, the shifting operations which are performed in quick succession have a tendency to cause platen overshooting which will result in an irregular imprint. This is especially true of high-speed computing machines having large platens which operate in this manner.

Prior art devices operating in the manner described above have the disadvantage that during the shifting of the paper platen in the first or forward direction the driving gear must be disengaged from the paper platen. In order to protect the paper platen against the danger of overshooting when shifted in either the forward or reverse directions, it has become necessary to provide a gear arrangement which exhibits an extremely high resistance to rotation. Such an arrangement has the disadvantage of introducing a large amount of disturbing 3,217,855 Patented Nov. 16, 1965 tremely difficult operation.

In accordance with the instant invention the above disadvantage of prior art paper platen transport mechanisms of the type referred to above are eliminated by the provision of an assembly having an operating sequence which is so designed that after a first number is printed upona paper document the document is advanced by a first predetermined amount to permit easy observation of the number just printed and then is reversed a second predetermined smaller amount than the first predetermined amount before the imprinting of the next line of desired characters upon the paper document. The assembly which carries out the operations is comprised of the paper platen which automatically shifts forward or advances a first predetermined amount after the first print operation and is then shifted backward by a predetermined number of shift units in readiness for the next print operation. The platen driving means is maintained in continuous engagement with the rotatable paper platen gear assuring perfect and foolproof opera tion of the paper platen transporting mechanism without any overshooting when being performed automatically and which permits the platen to be operated manually with relative ease and which further eliminates the troublesome noises inherent in prior art shifting assemblies.

.It is therefore one object of this invention to provide a line shifting apparatus for printing facilities of computers and the like which is so designed as to permit free visual observation of the last line of characters imprinted immediately after the imprinting of these characters and before the imprinting of tne next subsequent line of characters.

Another object of this invention is to provide a line shifting device for use in computer printing facilities and the like which is so designed as to cause the paper document to be shifted forward a predetermined distance immediately after the last imprinting operation enabling the last line of characters imprinted to be completely observable and immediately thereafter to shift a predetermined amount in the reverse direction in readiness for the next line of characters to be printed.

These and other objects of our invention will become apparent when reading the following description and accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a cross-sectional view of the line spacing mechanism of this invention with the mechanism being shown in its start position.

FIGURE 2 is a top view of the line spacing mechanism of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a view of the line spacing mechanism of FIGURE 1 showing the mechanisms operation position.

FIGURE 4 is a side view showing the paper platen of FIGURES 1 through 3 in greater detail.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGURES 1 through 4 show the line spacing mechanism which is comprised of a rotatably mounted shaft 2 having its opposite ends pivotally mounted in two similar side walls 3, 3 (see also FIGURE 2) of the paper carriage means 4. The paper platen 5 is equipped with a driving gear 6 and a transport grid gear 7, both said driving gear and said transport grid gear, as well as said platen, being fixedly mounted upon shaft 2. Also rotatably mounted on a shaft 8 is a first bearing lever 9. Shaft 8 is pivotally alfixed at one end to the side wall 3 at location 3b (see FIGURE 2). A shaft 10 is pivotally mounted on first bearing lever 9. A second lever 11 is pivotally mounted to first bearing lever 9 by means of shaft 10. The upper part of bearing lever 9 s,217,sa

has an arcuate slot 13 which s'lidably engages the shaft 12. Shaft 12 has a roller 14 mounted at one end which engages the teeth 15 of the transport grid gear 7. The opposite end of shaft 12 is pivotally linked to lever arm 11. A pin 16 is riveted to the lower end of second bearing lever 11 and is adapted to abut a slot 174: in rail 17, which is connected to the transfer lever 19 by pivot means 18.

Transfer lever 19 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 21 and its protruding tip 22 is adapted to abut stationary shaft 24, which is affixed to the machine frame 3a. Vertical side wall 3a, like side walls 3, form the supporting structure for the mechanism 100. The lower edge 25 of transfer lever tip 22 bears on a roller 26 which is pivota-lly affixed by roller pin 27 to the crank member 28 which is mounted upon and keyed to the main drive shaft 29. A substantially Y-shaped lever 30 which is rotatably mounted upon shaft 24 has rollers 33 and 34 pivotally mounted by roller pins 35 and 36 respectively. Lift cams 37 and 38 are mounted for rotation with and keyed to shaft 29 on opposite sides of member 30 so as to abut the rollers 33 and 34 respectively, which roject on opposite sides of member 30. Double-roller lever member 30 is arranged so that rollers 33, 34 movably engage the cam surfaces of cams 37 and 38 which both rotate in the direction of the arrow 70. The horizontal guide slot 40 in upper arm 39 slidably engages guide pin 41 which pin is connected by means of aperture 42, to the shift lever 43.

A biasing spring 44 is coupled at one end to the aperture 45 or shift lever 43 and at the other end to an aperture 9b of bearing lever 9, pull spring member 44 being adapted to urge shift lever 43, which passes through base plate 4 of the paper carriage, into engagernent with the driving gear 6 of paper platen 5. The flanged portion 46 of the shift lever 43 engages the teeth of the driving gear 6.

Rotatably mounted on the shaft 47 is the angle lever 48 which is biased by the spring member 49 in the direction of the arrow 49a so that surface 50 abuts shaft 51, while extension 52 of the right end of the angle lever 48 carries a guide pin 53 which is guided in the horizontal slot 54 to the connector member 17. Link 48, together with spring means 49, acts to correctly position the righthand end of connecting link 17 in the vertical direction so that notch 17a is in alignment with pin 16. In addition thereto, once connecting link 17 imparts rotation to lever arm 11 it will be noted that connecting link 17 will experience some downward vertical movement as it moves to the left. Angle lever 48, together with spring 49, acts to cushion this vertical movement.

The operation of the transfer lever mechanism 19 of the invention will now be described.

Some time after the start of the machine operation, the main drive shaft 29 will revolve in the direction of the arrow 70 thereby turning counterclockwise roller 26 of crank part 28 relative to the axis of shaft 2?. The transfer lever 19 thereby rotates counterclockwise about shaft 20, and, by means of pin 18, causes the connecting rail 17 to move towards the left, moving the bearing lever 11 clockwise from the position of FIGURE 1 to the position shown in FIGURE 3. Simultaneously therewith, roller 14 turns paper platen 5 counterclockwise by two tooth pitches (in reverse to the transporting direction). Considering now the operation of double-roller lever 32, the upper arm 39 of the double roller lever 32, through the rotation of the lift cams 37 and 3S and through the rollers 33 and 34, is rotated clockwise to the right, enabling the shift lever 43 (which is under tension due to the spring 44) to move from the position of FIGURE 1 into the position shown in FIGURE 3, and thus made ready for a subsequent platen transport movement. After a printing operation, the cam surfaces 37 and 38 cause the double-roller lever 30 to return (from the position of FIGURE 3) to the position of FIGURE 1. Simultaneously therewith, lever 19 is returned to its starting position due to biasing spring 21.

Continuing with the description of double-roller lever 32, under the effect of the shift lever 43 moving to the left, the flange 46 engages the teeth of the gear 6, the above described operation causing the paper platen 5 to be rotated clockwise, as shown by arr-ow 72, by the above described amount of reverse shift distance. Roller 14 which is biased toward engagement with teeth 15 by spring 44 prevents overshooting.

As shift lever 43 moves further towards the left, cam surface 55 of lever 43 engages roller 14, causing bearing lever 11 to move from the position of FIGURE 3 to that of FIGURE 1, causing the roller 14throu'gh the teeth 15 of the grid gear wheel 7to rotate the paper platen 5 still further in the forward shift direction by the distance of two gear teeth. During this shifting operation, roller 14 remains engaged with the teeth 15 of the grid wheel 7. At the end of the shifting operation, the flange 46 of shift lever 43 becomes again disengaged from the teeth of the driving gear 6, placing the line feed assembly in readiness for the next line feed operation.

A paper feed arrangement which may be employed with the line feed assembly of FIGURES 1 through 4 is comprised of a paper supply roller 79 rotatably mounted at pivot 78 and a take-up roller 77 rotatably mounted at pivot point 75. The paper '76 is threaded from spool 79 around paper platen 5 to take-up spool 77. Spools 77 and '79 are rotated by means (not shown) in order to provide the proper movement of paper tape 76.

Reviewing the steps of the line feed operation in connection with the movement of the paper, the operation is as follows:

Connector rail 17 moving towards the left causes bearing lever 11 to rotate clockwise about its pivot point 10. Roller 14, moving in guide slot 13, engages the teeth 15 of gear 7, causing the platen 5 to move counterclockwise, as shown by arrow 71, an angular distance of twoteeth 15 of the gear 7. Immediately after this operation, the next line of characters is printed on paper tape 76 at position A by print means 80 shown in diagrammatic form.

Eccentric cams 37 and 38 cause Y-shaped member 30 to rotate in a counterclockwise direction about its pivot point 24, moving shift lever 43 to the left. The flange 46 of shift lever 43 engages the teeth of driving gear 6, causing paper platen 5 to rotate clockwise in the direction shown by arrow 72 through substantially the same distance which it was moved due to the movement of bearing lever 11.

As shift lever 43 moves still further towards the left, cam surface 55 of lever 43 bears against roller 14, causing it to move from the position shown in FIGURE 3 to that shown in FIGURE 1, thereby urging paper platen 5 a distance of two more gear teeth in the clockwise direction. This operation moves the characters last printed at position A to the position A where they are easily observable.

Connecting rail 17 is again driven towards the left causing paper platen 5 to rotate in the counterclockwise direction shown by arrow 71 moving the last line of printed characters from position A to position A".

It can be seen that in this position the next line of characters B which is printed is immediately below the last line of characters which is now in position A".

Alternative spacing between lines of imprinted characters may be obtained as follows:

The pin 41 which is positioned in slot 40 of member 30 may be moved to any position within the limits of slot 40, such as, for example, it may be moved towards the left with respect to FIGURE 1, causing shift lever 43 when moved by member 30 to be urged further towards the left when pin 41 is moved to a position to the left from that which it occupies in FIGURE 1. Thus, the platen 5 will advance a greater number of shift units i the clockwise direction shown by arrow 72 so that when the reverse shift in the direction shown by .arrow 71 takes place, the last line of imprinted characters will not return to a position immediately above the next line. to be printed, but will be spaced a somewhat greater distance away from the next line to be printed than the spacing which will be obtained when pin 41 is in the position shown in FIGURE 1.

Considering the overall operation of the paper platen assembly: Let it be assumed that the operator has turned on the computing machine and has entered the first numher to be printed into the machine.

As soon as the first number (or first line of characters) is printed upon the paper document 76, the double-roller lever 30, operating in the manner described above in detail, moves the shift lever 43 from the position of FIG- URE 3 to the position of FIGURE 1 to move the paper platen 5 clockwise (through engagement with gear 6) by a first number of shift units. The shift lever 43 also causes the cam surface 55 to engage roller 14 which, through gear 7, moves paper platen 5 a second number of shift units. The device is now in the position shown in FIGURE 1.

Subsequent thereto lever 19, operating in the manner described above in detail, moves the rail 17 from the position of FIGURE 1 to the position of FIGURE 3 to operate roller 14 to turn paper platen 5 counterclockwise (through gear 7) by an amount equal to the second predetermined number of shift units thereby placing the paper document in position to have the second line of characters printed thereon.

Thus, it can be seen that we have provided a line feed mechanism which operates in such a manner that the characters last printed are immediately observable prior to the imprinting of characters on the next line.

Although we have described preferred embodiments of our novel invention, many variations and modifications will now be obvious to those skilled in the art, and we prefer, therefore, to be limited not by the specific disclosure herein but only by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a line spacing mechanism for use in adding machines, computing machines and the like, a rotatably mounted first shaft; a paper platen secured to said fi st shaft for rotation therewith, said paper platen being restrained from lateral movement; first and second gear members secured to said first shaft at one end thereof; and in combination therewith means for line spacing platen comprising: a drive shaft; a crank arm secured to said drive shaft; a pivotally mounted transfer lever engaging said crank arm to experience reciprocating movement; a pivotally mounted lever arm having a first roller member at a first end thereof and a pin at a second end thereof; a rail member piv-otally connected to said transfer lever for engaging the pin on said lever arm; said first roller member being in substantially continuous engagement with said first gear member; first and second cams being secured to said drive shaft; a pivotally mounted Y- shaped member having second and third roller members pivotally mounted to first and second arms of said Y-shaped member for engaging said first and second cams, respectively; and a transport rail having a first end pivotally connected to the third arm of said Y-shaped member and having a flange at the second end thereof engaging said second gear member and a cam surface adjacent said flange; said drive shaft rotating said Y-shaped member causing said transport lever flange to move said paper platen in a first direction through a first predetermined number of shift units, and further causing said cam surface to move said first roller member in a first direction to move said paper platen still further in said first direction by a second predetermined number of shift units; said crank arm being rotated to move said transport lever in a first direction causing said rail member to move said lever arm pin thereby moving said roller member in a second direction opposite said first direction causing said paper platen to move in a second direction opposite to said first direction by an amount equal to said second predetermined number of shift units.

2. The device of claim 1 further comprising a second pivotally mounted lever arm having an ar-cuate slot at one end thereof; said first lever arm being pivotally mounted to said second lever arm; said arcuate slot receiving one end of said first roller member to limit the movement of said first roller member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,516,679 11/1924 Muller 197-127 2,153,182 4/1939 Gray 197127 X 2,264,855 12/1941 Pasinski 197-133 X 2,318,000 5/1943 Lippert 197-414 2,390,396 12/1945 Spurlino et al. 197-114 X ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner. R. A. LEIGHEY, EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Examiners. 

1. IN A LINE SPACING MECHNISM FOR USE IN ADDING MACHINES, COMPUTING MACHINES AND THE LIKE, A ROTATABLY MOUNTED FIRST SHAFT; A PAPER PLATEN SECURED TO SAID FIRST SHAFT FOR ROTATION THEREWITH, SAID PAPER PLATEN BEING RESTRAINED FROM LATERAL MOVEMENT; FIRST AND SECOND GEAR MEMBERS SECURED TO SAID FIRST SHAFT AT ONE END THEREOF; AND IN COMBINATION THEREWITH MANS FOR LINE SPACING PLATEN COMPRISING: A DRIVE SHAFT; A CRANK ARM SECURED TO SAID DRIVE SHAFT; A PIVOTALLY MOUNTED TRANSFER LEVER ENGAGING SAID CRANK ARM TO EXPERIENCE RECIPROCATING MOVEMENT; A PIVOTALLY MOUNTED LEVER ARM HAVING A FIRST ROLLER MEMBER AT A FIRST END THEREOF AND A PIN AT A SECOND END THEREOF; A RAIL MEMBER PIVOTALLY CONNECTD TO SAID TRANSFER LEVER FOR ENGAGING THE PIN ON SAID LEVER ARM; SAID FIRST ROLLER MEMBER BEING IN SUBSTANTIALLY CONTINUOUS ENGAGEMENT WITH SAID FIRST GEAR MEMBER; FIRST AND SECOND CAMS BEING SECURED TO SAID DRIVE SHAFT; A PIVOTALLY MOUNTED YSHAPED MEMBER HAVING SECOND AND THIRD ROLLER MEMBERS PIVOTALLY MOUNTED TO FIRST AND SECOND ARMS OF SAID Y-SHAPED MEMBER FOR ENGAGING SAID FIRST AND SECOND CAMS, RESPECTIVELY; AND A TRANSPORT RAIL HAVING A FIRST END PIVOTALLY CONNECTED TO THE THIRD ARM OF SAID Y-SHAPED MEMBER AND HAVING A FLANGE AT THE SECOND END THEREOF ENGAGING SAID SECOND GEAR MEMBER AND A CAM SURFACE ADJACENT SAID FLANGE; SAID DRIVE SHAFT ROTATING SAID Y-SHAPED MEMBER CAUSING SAID TRANSPORT LEVER FLANGE TO MOVE SAID PAPER PLATEN IN A FIRST DIRECTION THROUGH A FIRST PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SHIFT UNITS, AND FURTHER CAUSING SAID CAM SURFACE TO MOVE SAID FIRST ROLLER MEMBER IN A FIRST DIRECTION TO MOVE SAID PAPER PLATEN STILL FURTHER IN SAID FIRST DIRECTION BY A SECOND PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SHIFT UNITS; SAID CRANK ARM BEING ROTATED TO MOVE SAID TRANSPORT LEVER IN A FIRST DIRECTION CAUSING SAID RAIL MEMBER TO MOVE SAID LEVER ARM PIN THEREBY MOVING SAID ROLLER MEMBER IN A SECOND DIRECTION OPPOSITE SAID FIRST DIRECTION CAUSING SAID PAPER PLATEN TO MOVE IN A SECOND DIRECTION OPPOSITE TO SAD FIRST DIRECTION BY AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO SAID SECOND PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SHIFT UNITS. 